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Thursday, 6 May 2010

Rubber Soles

A former biochemist, Pablo Barclay decided to create a bit of chemistry himself in the shoe industry by creating his own online retail shoe company. Throwing caution to the wind he began his own internet business www.rubbersole.co.uk with only £3000 on his credit card and a bedroom as his office where he had to store his first stock of shoes in his wardrobe.Now after 5 years the business has a turnover of £3million, a large warehouse in the midlands and Pablo’s wardrobe is back to storing his own clothes.

The company name Rubber Sole was inspired from the Beatles album title “Rubber Soul”. Asking whether he was a great fan of the Beatles, he just smiled and said they were before his time but liked the name of the album – oops showing my age!

When asked how he chose which shoe brands to sell, Pablo explained he decided to source the most up to date and fashionable footwear brands such as Ugg and Converse and online just makes them more accessible to the public. He admits that the hardest challenge is to forecast which brand will be the next big trend. But so far Pablo has been successful in spotting these trends and so enabling his company to be one of the first to sell them online. These include brands such as Crocs, Snow Joggers, Fit Flops and Iron Fist.

Exclusive brands to Rubber Sole for the UK market are the Holster’s jelly sandals and Hummel’s ankle boot trainers.Pablo states:“Straight from the beautiful Noosa beach in Australia, Holster has set the trend for the diamante studded jelly sandal and has become on one of the hottest buys of the year.” We may not be in Australia, but hey even in our rainy summer days jelly sandals sounds like the ideal footwear and prices between £24.99 and £39.99 you can’t go wrong.

And on the Hummel trainer, Pablo explains “Keeping their focus on quality and technology has ensured that Hummel was always a permanent fixture across sports stores in Europe but have now crossed the boundary into the high end fashion stores as a retro trainer.” When ordering through Rubber Sole, the trainers are shipped direct from the Hummel factory in Germany straight to the customer’s door, ensuring German efficiency comes with the package.

Their next exclusive coup is soon to be available online and comes in the form of a Swarovski crystal embellished rubber flip flop by Havaianas (considered the most fashionable flip flop brand) and will retail around the £100 mark.

Pablo has created a shoeaholic’s delight with Rubber Sole, providing an eclectic fashionable range from the delicate French Sole ballet flats to the sturdier Dr Martens boots. And the great advantage of buying online? – All brands in one place and no blisters from traipsing around the shoe shops.